1914 deaths

Sir Alfred Mellor Watkin, 2nd Baronet (11 August 1846 – 30 November 1914) was a Liberal Party politician and railway engineer.

Caspar Mathias Spoo (7 January 1837 – 17 March 1914) was a Luxembourgish industrialist and politician.
Spoo was born in Echternach in 1837. His parents were workers in the earthenware factory, and died early. He joined the civil service from a young age, to make a living for himself and his siblings. He gave up his position in the postal service in order to open the Société Duchscher Frères et Spoo with André Duchscher, his old friend. From 1886, he worked for two years as an accountant at the Dudelange foundry; he then struck out on his own in 1888 to open an ironmongery in Esch-Alzette with a workshop constructing ovens, cauldrons, etc.: the Maschinenfabrik Spoo & Co.
Additionally, he was politically active. He was elected to the communal council of Esch in 1893 and to the Chamber of Deputies in 1896. Along with Michel Welter, he was one of the first people to engage in modern election campaigning in Luxembourg, by drafting and publishing a manifesto and giving speeches. Politically, he belonged to the left-liberal middle-class. Influenced by André Duchscher, he campaigned for universal suffrage, progressive taxation and social security. He also called for the construction of an industrial school and a secondary school for girls in Esch, and demanded that the canton of Esch, whose economic and demographic importance had increased due to industrialisation, should receive more seats in the Chamber. His social campaigning, in the paternalistic tradition of the 19th century, earned him the nickname "Pappa Spoo".
He was married to Barbe Kiesel, and was the father of Armand Spoo. At his funeral in Esch, Michel Welter gave a eulogy, calling Spoo the "conscience of Luxembourgish socialism."

Paul (Louis-Toussaint) Héroult (10 April 1863 – 9 May 1914) was a French scientist. He was one of the inventors of the Hall-Héroult process for smelting aluminium, and developed the first successful commercial electric arc furnace. He lived in Thury-Harcourt, Normandy.

Paul Eugène Célestin Perquer (3 October 1859 in Le Havre - 7 January 1914 in Barneville-la-Bertran) was a French sailor who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. Perquer took the gold in the 10 to 20 ton.

Eugène Jean François Balme (22 November 1874 – 24 February 1914) was a French sport shooter who competed at the 1900 Summer Olympics and 1908 Summer Olympics.In 1900 at Paris he won the bronze medal in the 25 metre rapid fire pistol event. Eight years later at London he won another bronze medal in the team free rifle event and was fourth in team military rifle event.He was born in Oullins and died in Paris. He committed suicide by shooting himself.

Charles Devendeville (8 March 1882 in Lesquin – 19 September 1914 in Reims) was a French swimmer and Olympic champion. He competed at the 1900 Olympic Games in Paris, where he received a gold medal in the underwater swimming. He died of injuries during the First World War, at age 32.

Albert Karl Ludwig Gotthilf Günther , also Albert Charles Lewis Gotthilf Günther (3 October 1830 – 1 February 1914), was a German-born British zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. Günther is ranked the second-most productive reptile taxonomist (after George Albert Boulenger) with more than 340 reptile species described.

Hans Leybold (2 April 1892 – 8 September 1914) was a German expressionist poet, whose small body of work was a major inspiration behind much of the Dada movement, in particular the works of his close friend Hugo Ball. Although Leybold died two years before the emergence of Dada, his absurdist writings and poems represent an important stage in the development of expressionist movement in Germany.
Born into a middle-class family in Frankfurt am Main, Leybold was raised in Hamburg where he completed his schooling in 1911 and joined the German Army. In his compulsory year of conscription he impressed his superior officers so much he was offered a commission and embarked on a military career. Taking a leave of absence to attend university, Leybold traveled to Munich to study German literature and whilst there he fell in with the crowd of German poets and authors who would head the Dada movement post-war. These figures included Richard Huelsenbeck, Emmy Hennings, Klabund, Johannes R. Becher, Franz Jung and most importantly of all his particular friend Hugo Ball. It was Ball who interested Leybold in the expressionist movement and soon the two of them were soon producing poetry together under the pseudonym Ha Hu Baley. In the company of these authors, Leybold experimented wildly with technique and imagery in his poetry, seeking both to develop his skills and in the process deconstruct poetry itself, heavily influenced by Alfred Kerr and Friedrich Nietzsche. In consequence of his literary experimentation, his studies went neglected and he began to edit and contribute to expressionist magazines, such as Die Aktion and his own work, the short lived magazine Revolution, in which he and his colleagues issued their literary manifesto.
"Protect yourself against responsibilities! Hit out: against old household rubbish! And if some valuable piece gets torn up in the process: what does it matter? You respected people! You well-polished ones! You bigwigs! We ought to stick our tongues out at you! Boys, you'll say. Old men! we'll reply"
In August 1914 the First World War erupted and Leybold was immediately called up as an active reservist. Less than a month later, Leybold was seriously wounded during operations near Namur and was evacuated to a casualty clearing hospital. He recovered rapidly from his wound but on 8 September, the night he returned to his regiment, he committed suicide by gunshot to the head. His death was never fully explained, although a rumour persisted that he had syphilis and had given up on survival following his wound. His works were collected together many years after his death, as he never had a book published independently, and he is now recognised as an important influence both on Dadism and German expressionism itself.

Dr. Rudolph (Rudolf) Emmerich (29 September 1856– 15 November 1914) was a German bacteriologist noted for his advances against cholera and his co-invention of the first antibiotic drug Pyocyanase with Oscar Löw in 1890s.

Emmerich made experiments on himself by injections of cholera strains and proved that cholera is less virulent when contracted from human to human as opposed to from the ground.
Emmerich was professor Hygiene and Bacteriology at the University of Munich.

Henri-Joseph Dugué de La Fauconnerie (1835-1914) was a French politician. He served as a member of the Corps législatif from 1869 to 1870, and as a member of the Chamber of Deputies from 1876 to 1881, and from 1885 to 1893, representing Orne.